"They have the apple."
Translation:Sie haben den Apfel.
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I believe that "den " is used instead of "der" because the apple is the subject of the verb Haben i.e. it is being "had". When a masculine object is receiving an action from a verb then the case changes from nominitive "der" to accusative "den".
Apple is the object in the sentence, not the subject. The subject is sie.
Dear Geoffrey, thank you for you very clear explanation. Wouldn't Apfel be an object for the verb haben ? (isn't 'being had by Sie' quite a definition of an object?) Isn't Sie the subject (i.e. who is having) ? Heelp lol
Can anyone explain why "Sie haben den Apfel" would be the correct translation here rather than "Sie haben der Apfel"?
Cause german lanuague have akkusativ and nominetiv Der Apfel is in nominetiv. Hope you understand:)
They say German is a cruel language for a reason. There's so many articles, ahh!
Dear GuilSobrinho. Yes I agree that in this example Apfel is the direct object of the verb 'haben'. I mentioned 'being had' as a way of explaining that it is the direct object of the verb (that is receiving the action - 'being had') and so therefore it takes the accusative. The thing that is "doing the action" here i.e. the subject is indeed 'Sie'. Maybe It would have been better if I hadn't mentioned 'the being had' part as for some people this makes it clearer and others more confused. The reason, I mentioned it is that if a sentence was using the verb 'sein' meaning the state of being (- to be) then the sentence would stay in the nominative case because there would be no real action. So if you say something simply 'is' something for example Das ist der Rote Apfel - (that is the red apple) it keeps the article in nominative but when something is being 'had' i.e. object of the verb 'haben' then it changes to accusative and hence der becomes den. I hope this helps
I just want to ask about the haben part. When and why do we use habe, haben, habt and hast? Danke :)))
You can address multiple people as "ihr" BUT only a group of close friends.
It's similar to "y'all" ie. when you ask a group of friends "How are y'all doing?"
It helps to think of them like English pronouns:
I - Nominative Me - Accusative
Like how in English there are "like 5 different words for be" -- am, is, are, be, being.
English lost this for most verbs but German kept this.
You have to choose the appropriate form depending on the subject.
The best that I could figure out is is just one person has the apple it is einen as in ihr habt einen Apfel. When its than one then it becomes den such as Sie haben den Apfel.
- Ihr habt einen Apfel. = You (several people whom you know well) have an apple.
- Sie haben den Apfel. = You (a person or people whom you don't know well) have the apple.
When it comes as object "der apfel" will be "den apfel". But not in the case of water. In both occasions it is used as "das Wasser" why??
When it comes as object "der apfel" will be "den apfel".
It's der Apfel, den Apfel with capital A.
But not in the case of water. In both occasions it is used as "das Wasser" why?
Only masculine words change in the accusative case in German.
Feminine, neuter, and plural words always look the same in the accusative and in the nominative cases.
(For neuter words, this "nom=acc" trait is extremely old and is found in all the Indo-European languages I know of, from Greek to Russian and from German to Slovak. Even English has "he/him" and "she/her" but "it=it".)
Is there any difference? Like, when should you say "das ist ein Junge" and when should you say "dies ist ein Junge"?
when should you say "das ist ein Junge" and when should you say "dies ist ein Junge"?
dies if it's specifically close.
das is less specific about distance -- you could use it for something close or for something further away.